Saudi Arabia and the UAE are funneling millions of dollars to Palestinian groups to buy their abstention from the current wave of terror against Israel, while Iran and Hizballah spend cash to convince Palestinian extremists to keep the flames high. The Saudi-Iranian contest terror poses a major threat to the security and stability of Israel and Jordan. The Obama administration is left behind and Mahmoud Abbas is out in the cold as the Saudis and UAE go directly to Israel and Jordan.

Egypt is in advanced negotiations with France for two highly advanced French Mistral class assault-cum-helicopter carrier ships originally destined for the Russian Navy. debkafile reports that this deal, if it goes through, will substantially beef up the regional lineup of the Saudi, Egyptian and Israeli navies. The new vessels would enable it to contest Iranian naval challenges in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and alter the balance of strength between the opposing sides. Saudis and the UAE are covering the bill.

The Crown Prince leads the war on domestic terror, while his deputy heads the war on Yemen. But the latter is also the king’s son and the Yemen war may be easier to crack than the pervasive attraction of young Saudi men to the radical lure of ISIS.

Building on the nuclear accord, the Obama administration has been in close communion with Moscow and Tehran on moves to save the Assad regime as the key to ending the Syrian conflict and a united front against the Islamic State. This initiative was to have peaked at the Doha foreign ministers’ meeting on Aug. 3, except that it was blocked by Saudi refusal to acknowledge Assad. The US and Russia hope to change Riyadh’s mind when Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir visits Moscow on Aug. 11. But then, Israel and Jordan would face great peril from southern Syria.

Under a secret deal with Obama, Putin has cornered the Middle East nuclear market and signed contracts to supply reactors and other facilities to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE. Fordo will become a research center.

Iranian strategists are giving the Houthis advanced Fateh-100 missiles for hitting key Saudi facilities deep in the kingdom, determined to beat back the Saudi air campaign., while upgrading Tehran’s intervention.

The Saudi Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Muhammad bin Ahmed Al-Shaalan was killed in a Yemeni rebel Houthi cross-border missile attack on the big King Khalid Air Base at Khamis Mushayt, debkafile reports.The attack took place on June 6, but his death was kept secret until June 10. The largest Saudi air base, it is from there that the campaign to end the Iranian-backed Yemeni insurgency is being mounted. Tehran likely put the Houthis up to the attack which marked a major escalation in the Yemeni war, with implications for US-Iranian relations.

Riyadh reported Saturday, June 6, that Patriot batteries had intercepted Scud missiles fired by Yemen Houthi rebels at Khamis al-Mushait, the kingdom’s largest air base, from which Saudi jets take off to strike Yemeni rebels. debkafile’s military sources disclose that the Patriots, activated for the first time, were manned by American teams – the first direct US intervention on the Saudi side of the Yemen conflict. Khamenei’s statement on Iranian troops for Syria is awaited. ISIS meanwhile warns Syrian rebels in the south to break off contact with US-Jordanian and Israeli command centers.

Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah frequently brags that his 80,000 missiles can reach any point in Israel. He may have to compromise. His masters in Tehran are casting about urgently for ways to save the Assad regime in Damascus and halt the Islamic State’s inexorable advance on Baghdad and the Iraqi Shiite shrine city of Karbala. debkafile: Iran is eyeing the re-allocation of some 1,000 long-range rockets in Hizballah’s store for warding off these calamities. It is also weighing a defense pact with Syria to enable Iranian troops to come to Assad’s aid.